The White House Correspondent’s Dinner has been held every year since 1920 to honor excellence in journalism. But it is also an event where politicians rub elbows with Hollywood celebrities and vice versa, and where the President is able to show his humorous side.
On Saturday night, President Obama took the opportunity to turn the Republican Party and Mitt Romney into even bigger punchlines than they already are.
President Obama began with Congressional Republicans who have blocked any and every bill in an attempt to make him (and America) fail. The President reminded us that he was elected back in 2008, and then quipped,
“Since then, Congress and I have certainly had our differences; yet, I’ve tried to be civil, to not take any cheap shots. And that’s why I want to especially thank all the members who took a break from their exhausting schedule of not passing any laws to be here tonight. Let’s give them a big round of applause.”
President Obama then turned his attention to Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, taking a light jab at Romney’s vast wealth and many houses.
“Anyway, it’s great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom — or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper.”
The President had more to say about Mitt Romney later on, but first introduced the entertainment for the evening as well as taking a shot at the Republican war on women, referencing the all-male panel of “experts” brought by Republicans to speak during a hearing about contraception coverage.
“Our chaperone for the evening is Jimmy Kimmel — who is perfect for the job since most of tonight’s audience is in his key demographic — people who fall asleep during Nightline. Jimmy got his start years ago on The Man Show. In Washington, that’s what we call a congressional hearing on contraception.”
At this juncture, President Obama encouraged Newt Gingrich to stay in the race and then talked about what he and Mitt have in common.
“Now, I know at this point many of you are expecting me to go after my likely opponent, Newt Gingrich. Newt, there’s still time, man. But I’m not going to do that — I’m not going to attack any of the Republican candidates. Take Mitt Romney — he and I actually have a lot in common. We both think of our wives as our better halves, and polls show, to a alarmingly insulting extent, the American people agree. We also both have degrees from Harvard; I have one, he has two. What a snob.”
The ‘What a snob.’ comment was a reference to Rick Santorum’s attack against President Obama wanting everyone to go to college. President Obama then mentioned The Hunger Games in reference to class warfare and the Republican Primary.
“Still, I guess Governor Romney is feeling pretty good about things because he took a few hours off the other day to see The Hunger Games — some of you have seen it. It’s a movie about people who court wealthy sponsors and then brutally savage each other until only one contestant is left standing. I’m sure this was a really good change of pace for him. I have not seen The Hunger Games; not enough class warfare for me.”
The jabs didn’t stop there, however. President Obama then brought up Romney’s trouble with dogs. And played a fake Romney SuperPAC attack ad in which Romney defends his decision to strap the family dog to the top of his car for a road trip, and criticizes President Obama for keeping his dog in the car. At the end, Romney is shown beside Air Force One while his dog’s car carrier is strapped to the top of the plane.
Here’s the video via Buzzfeed:
Curiously, Mitt Romney failed to show up to the event. I guess he didn’t feel like being a good sport at the center of the President’s jokes. Of course, it’s not like Romney would have shown any emotion anyway.
Here’s the full video of the President’s speech:
To view the full transcript of the President’s speech, visit here.
